Wow. De Staat are the band you should see if you only see one band in your whole year.
Actually, make that your whole LIFE.

10/10 obviously. Just brilliant. We hadn’t really even listened to them before we went, and it was amazing. Being familiar with the tunes always helps, but it’s just not necessary with these guys.
Thanks to Leigh for the tip, and great to see them there, along with Bethany and Billy ( B&B ). I’ve seen a few bands with Leigh before and well, he’s not exactly Mr Moveaboutalot. He moves so little you’d be forgiven for not being sure which one of us is paralysed. … but last night he was like bloody Michael Jackson he was so animated. That’s the De Staat effect!

https://youtu.be/PTxoLaiaa7I

The trip back was fine, but the one there was a shocker. The buses were not following the rules and then the overground train service let us down. When you are in a chair you need a ramp to get on or off. Well obviously they can get you on – that’s not the issue, but then you have to get off at your destination station. The station you get on at phones ahead so they know and a guard is there waiting with a ramp.

Except he wasn’t bloody there. I’m in the iBot and that’s a total of 250kg, and there’s a 30cm drop to the platform as well as a 20 cm gap between the train and the platform. I had to get off, there wasn’t any other plan! I’d said to Wendy that if no one was there ( and that’s always my fear with bloody trains ) then we’d try by going off backwards and her shouting for strapping fellas to assist. Well we did all that but not a single male out of about 15 close by came to help her.
What the F is wrong with people? Society is falling apart. Everyone complains about the slightest offence but yet is quite happy to stand idly by and let a small woman manhandle a massive weight off a train.

I have to just get over this stuff straight away as it happens all the time. That doesn’t make it forgivable and I’ll write yet another email, but I do have to not dwell on it rather than be permanently f’d off…